U.S. Stocks Close On Strong Note; Nasdaq Rises 2.2 Percent

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks ended on a buoyant note on Monday, with the Nasdaq outperforming the other major averages thanks to hectic buying in the technology sector.

A drop in bond yields, and optimism about the outlook for stocks despite recent uncertainty about the likelihood of near-term interest rate cuts helped push stock prices up.

The major averages all ended with strong gains. The Dow ended up 216.90 points or 0.58 percent at 37,683.01, the S&P 500 climbed 66.30 points or 1.41 percent to 4,763.54, and the Nasdaq settled with a gain of 319.70 points or 2.2 percent at 14,843.77.

The Dow was weighed down by Boeing shares, which fell 8 percent after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to ground dozens of the company's 737 Max 9 aircraft after a door plug blew out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday.

American Airlines climbed more than 7 percent. Chipmaker Nvidia rallied more than 6 percent. Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc climbed about 5.5 percent.

Organon & Co shares soared 13 percent. Atista Networks, Fortinet, Dexcom, Global Payments, Teleflex and Moderna gained 4 to 7 percent.

Salesforce.com, HP, Intel, Airbnb, Adobe Systems, Amazon, United Airlines Holdings, PayPal, Netflix and Texas Instruments were among the other major gainers in the session.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower on Monday, with the Japanese markets closed for a holiday. China's Shanghai Composite Index slumped by 1.4 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index plunged by 1.9 percent.

The major European markets closed higher. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.06 percent, and Germany's DAX climbed 0.74 percent, while France's CAC 40 advanced 0.4 percent. The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.38%.

In the bond market, treasuries regained ground after moving notably lower over the two previous sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dropped to 3.965 percent around mid afternoon.